Pleasantdale
by PollyBunnyPeep
Summary: Jane wakes up one morning and notices everyone's behavior has changed a lot, while she is the only one who seems aware of what Lawndale was like the day before.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note**: this fanfic is quite ridiculous. I mean it. It's going to be so ridiculous that you can take this as a huge joke so some of the situations don't frustrate you or make you want to slap me.

* * *

"Hello, Jane. How are you in this lovely morning?".

Bewildered, Jane stared at the girl in front of her. Daria was wearing, instead of her black skirt and green coat, a white skirt and a pink shirt that resembled the one Quinn had the first day she had arrived Lawndale High, except that Daria's didn't expose her belly. Her brown hair was now a ponytail and her combat boots had been replaced with white flats.

"Daria?" Jane asked with a look of extreme confusion and almost fear sprinkled on her voice.

"Shall we go know? It would be awful to get late to school. We have class with Mr. O'Neill this morning and I would hate to miss his wonderful words. Oops! Sorry for using such a rude word".

Daria's smile was bigger than Jane had ever seen. Still somehow horrified it took Jane a moment to go back to herself and answer to the brainwashed version on her best friend.

"Daria, what the hell happened to you?" Jane yelled in shock.

"What do you mean?".

Jane looked at Daria once again, trying to make sure she was not hallucinating it.

"I mean... just... who" she hesitated unable to articulate her words properly ". Your hair and your clothes and your shoes, this is... this is really creepy, Daria. Hahaha" she laughed nervously ". Okay, I get it. You totally got me. Now go back to normal before I reach the point where I have a nervous breakdown".

"Oh, dear, that sounds serious. Should I take you with a doctor?" Daria replied with no aparent sarcasm ". But I still don't understand what you mean".

Jane couldn't find herself able to say anything else to attempt to explain what this new Daria couldn't unserstand.

"Are you okay, Daria?" She asked.

"Sure I am, who wouldn't in such a wonderful morning? Did you already have breakfast?".

"Uh... sure... just wait here for a minute, I will go grab my backpack.

Daria nodded with a wide smile and Jane closed the door trying not to scream.

She ran up the stairs to Trent's room.

"Trent, wake the hell up. Something weird is going on" but she couldn't say anything else because that was when she noticed Trent was not there. His room was... different. The mess that was always there wasn't anymore.

_Since when does this room have a floor?,_ she thought.

The room was perfectly organized. She didn't see Trent's guitar anywhere.

Suddenly, a noise made her turn around. It was her mom, wearing an apron and carrying a birthday present.

"Mom?" Jane was now even more confused.

"Darling, what are you doing here? I thought you had already gone to school. You'll be late".

Jane dropped her jaw as Amanda Lane put the present on Trent's bed.

"What are you doing here?" Jane asked.

Her mother laughed softly.

"What are you talking about, honey? I live here. By the way, Summer and I will go out with the kids for lunch and will be back around 6 pm so if you are going to be home please tell your brother I left him a present on his bed when he's back from college".

Jane was about to scream even louder than she was when she had seen Daria.

"Now, hurry up, sweetie, I left you a bag with lunch on the kitchen's table".

Jane, astonished but somehow able to function went to the kitchen and took the brown paper bag in silence, then took her backpack and opened the door.

"What took you so long?" Daria said as soon as she saw Jane ". It doesn't matter, we can still make it if we go now".

Jane followed Daria without saying anything until Daria asked her a question.

"Jane, you've been awfully quiet this morning. Is everything okay?".

"I believe it's too okay".

Daria laughed.

"I can't understand anything you say this morning, but you are funny".

Jane frowned and said "yeah, funny" almost whispering. When they finally arrived Lawndale High what Jane found was even more astonishment. Everyone looked different. Too different. She saw some of the weirdo guys she had shared the self esteem classes with and they all looked drastically different, had smiles on their faces and approached an amount of people she had never seen them talking to before.

"Daria!" A squeaky voice called.

Jane saw Brittany walking towards her and Daria in the company of a black haired girl she couldn't recognize.

"Brittany, it's so nice to see you" Daria greeted as soon as Brittany was close enough to her. The girls gave each other a hug and Daria smiled to the other girl.

"Oh, I didn't see you there, Jane" Brittany apologized ". My bad. It's nice to see you two. Anyway, Daria. Andrea and I wanted to talk to you about today's cheerleading practice at my house, we'll have to move it for tomorrow be-".

"ANDREA?!"Jane interrupted. The face was now recognized. A much happy and with less eyeliner version of Andrea was right in front of her.

"Uh, yeah" Andrea laughed ". And you're Jane".

"So, about the cheerleading practice" Brittany continued ". We can't do it today because of tomorrow's language arts test. We have to study so I'm sorry. I am sure we can practice tomorrow, after the exam".

"Sure, Brittany, no problem. It is more wise to study for the exam. I will see you later, now Jane and I have to go to Mr. O'Neill's class".

Jane and Daria walked away quickly through the hallway filled with unrecognizable students until Jane stopped Daria right in front of the classroom when she was about to go in.

"Jane, we are already late" Daria pointed out.

"Okay, Mogendorffer, what the hell is going on. Mom being home and going out with Summer and her kids? Trent in college? You in... the cheerleading squad?".

"I am starting to get worried. You are acting so strange".

"I am acting strange? Daria, you've smiled five times in the last ten minutes".

"Oh dear" Daria exclaimed ", only five times? I need to smile more, I don't want to give a look that might make people think I am rude".

Jane, bewildered, followed Daria inside of the classroom. She found all the students in the class. Brittany arrived the class shortly after Jane and Daria did. Jane was looking around the classroom, jaw dropped, and noticed how everyone looked extremely happy. Too happy for the average high school student.

Mr. O'Neill's class was the only normal thing about that morning. He was acting like he did every morning. The only weird thing was that during the class everyone payed attention to him with huge interest and seemed to agree with every tacky phrase he said. Jane thought that despite of the students acting weird during the class, Mr. O'Neill would somehow soothe her, but she ended up being even more distressed. Specially after she saw what had happened to the other teachers.

"Well, good morning, everyone" Mr. DeMartino greeted with a wide smile, not a psycho one, but a sincere one ". I suppose you all studied for today's test, right? ".

With smiles on their faces, all the students nodded and said yes multiple times.

"Excellent!" He cheerfully exclaimed ". I think we can do the test now, right?".

"Alright!" Kevin yelled with a smile on his face.

Mr. DeMartino, instead of annoyed seemed happy.

Jane stared blankly to the piece of paper during the whole hour, unable to concentrate on anything.

Then she saw Ms. Li.

"Oh, good morning, wonderful students" she said while walking down the hallway to her office ". And hello to two of my favorite students, Ms. Lane and Ms. Morgendorffer. How are you in this wonderful morning?".

Jane froze as Daria had a conversation with Ms. Li that didn't seem to bother Daria. She was trying to understand what was happening without finding any sense in it. The next shocking class was gym class. Ms. Morris sat on a chair in the middle of the gym and made all the girls sit on chairs to make a circle.

"Okay, girls, today instead of encouraging the unhealthy competitive sport activity we are going to talk. I believe we should also congratulate each other for our individual talents. I will start: Jane" she said as she turned her head to Jane ", I want to encourage your art talent and your magnificent running ability".

"Uh... thank you" Jane replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Daria, you are such a smart and enthusiastic girl".

Daria smiled and Jane couldn't contain a loud laughter.

"Uh, Jane, why are you laughing? Don't get me wrong, expressions of happiness are good but I'm curious" Daria asked.

"You... enthusiastic" she kept laughing ". You are smart, yes, but enthusiastic? This just got even more ridiculous".

"Do you... do you mean I am not enthusiastic enough?" Daria said almost crying, then she started to cry and ran out of the gym while everyone dropped their jaws. Brittany followed Daria screaming "wait!".

The whole class turned around in Jane's direction with disapproving glances.

"Jane, that was not very nice" were Mr. Morris' words before she followed Daria and Brittany.

The other girls shook their heads and left the room in silence giving Jane cold gazes.

Jane stayed on her chair for five minutes, wondering what the hell had just happened.

Finally, she got up and went to change her clothes. It didn't take her too much to decide to just go home early.


	2. Chapter 2

"Janey?" A much less raspy voice than what Jane had expected called from the kitchen table ". It's quite early, what are you doing here?".

"Trent? What the hell happened to you?"she yelled.

Her brother looked... different. Just like Daria, his clothing and aspect had changed drastically. He wasn't wearing his old green shirt and jeans or had his messy hair. His hair was combed and he was wearing clothes that made Jane think of Mr. O'Neill.

"What do you mean?".

She remembered her conversation with Daria a few hours earlier, she knew it would be useless to ask anything else.

"Never mind. Mom left something for you on your bed".

"Oh, yes, she left me a shirt as a gift because tomorrow it'll be one entire year since I entered college. I'm glad I want to be a doctor".

Jane was so confused she almost wanted to puke. She didn't know for how long could she hold her sanity under those conditions.

"But... what happened with Mystik Spiral?" She asked concerned.

"Jesse and I had a talk about it this morning and decided we can't rely on a band. We want to help people so I convinced him to go to college with me. We are still going to play, though, with happier lyrics. Positive is good, right?".

"I think... I'm going to go do my homework".

"Great! It's nice you are being responsible, Janey".

She nodded, confused, and went to her room. She closed the door and locked it, trying to breathe.

"Okay, Janey, don't panic. There's gotta be an an explanation for all this shit. This is probably a nightmare, yes! Just a nightmare" she laughed awkwardly until she needed to breathe again ". Wake up, Jane, dammit!" She screamed, but nothing happened ". What the hell is going on? Daria is a cheerleader, mom is home and Trent is a doctor and, god, Andrea, what have they done to you?".

What to do, she thought. She didn't know who should she ask. Whenever she asked anyone they didn't understand her. Was she surrounded by aliens or had she been abducted to another planet where everyone in Lawndale was brainwashed? She thought about her options. Was there anyone she hadn't seen at school acting weird? The answer came to her as a sickening possibility: she hadn't seen Charles at school at all.

_Oh, god_, she thought and escaped from the house in silence, to Charles' house.

* * *

"Well, hello lovely Ja-" Charles' greeting was interrupted by a violent sneeze.

"Upchuck? Okay, that didn't look like a creepy smile, not creepier than your usual self. Are you still, uh, you?".

"Oh, sweet Jane, you don't have to confuse me to seduce me, but your attempts make you even more of a feisty lady".

"It is you!" Jane screamed and hugged Charles, then immeaditaly noticed she had done that and moved away.

"Grrr... feisty!".

"Shut up, Upchuck, you won't tell anyone about that. I need to ask you something".

"Sure, anything for you" said Charles smiling at Jane.

"Okay, first of all, quit with the flirting. And second, what the hell is going on here?".

"What do you-".

"Don't you dare to ask me what I mean, I've heard that enough times today" she warned and entered Charles' house. She went straight to the living room and sat on the couch ". So you didn't go to school because you were sick. That makes sense but how come I wasn't brainwashed? And from all the people in Lawndale you were the only one who needed to be brainwashed".

"May I ask what are you talking about?".

"You weren't there, everyone's gone completely insane. Kevin studied for a test, Daria and Andrea are cheerleaders...".

"Feisty!" Charles interrupted.

"Shut up! This is important".

"Do you mean that was serious?".

"Yes, it was, Upchuck, everyone's acting... weird".

"That sounds... Jane, are you sure this isn't a joke?" Charles asked, being much more serious than Jane had ever seen.

"You could ask Daria about that but she seemed confused when I told her it wasn't funny anymore".

"Well, I think I may get better by tomorrow. I'll go to school and we can check out what's going on".

"Uh, Upchuck?".

"Yes?" He said taking a pill from the table and drinking it with some water.

"I... I can not believe I am going to say this, just thinking about getting those words out of my mouth sickens me but... uh would you mind if I spend the night here? I can't stand staying at home, my brother and my mom are freaking me out and my sanity can't stand being around them for much longer. And get that smile off your face, don't you dare to make any comments more than yes or no because I am so close to a nervous breakdown that I may punch you in the face if you say anything else".

"Okay" he said almost frightened by Jane's threat, which seemed quite serious ". Yes, you can stay, now whether you want to sleep in the guest's room or in my-" Charles didn't finish his sentence after he saw the cold look Jane gave him ". The guest's room, then".


	3. Chapter 3

"I knew you and lovely Daria were fans of pizza".

"Upchuck, everyone is a fan of pizza" Jane pointed out ". By the way, thanks for letting me stay here, this is the most normal thing of the day and I appreciate that, my brain needed to rest".

"There is no problem".

"By the way, can I make a phone call?".

"Go ahead" Charles told her.

Jane waited until the person on the other line picked up the phone. She was anxious, trying to figure out what to say and how to say it. She couldn't completely understand what had she done wrong to begin with. How does one apologize to someone when you don't understand what are you apologizing for? Charles stared at Jane curiously while biting a slice of pizza. Without Jane's knowledge, Charles was thinking about her. Despite of being a self-proclaimed Casanova, this was the first time a girl was going to sleep in his house, a girl that wasn't related to him or that wasn't there for other of the Ruttheimers. Jane was quite a pretty girl, he had to admit, and he had always thought so. What she had told him about Lawndale and everyone acting strange sounded so insane he almost wanted to believe she had invented everything just to have an excuse to spend the night around him, but even for him that sounded like something Jane wouldn't do.

"Quinn?... yeah, yeah, it's lovely to hear your voice too, I guess. Is Daria around?... yeah but I didn't mean to... I'm about to tell her I'm sorry... thanks".

"Lovely, huh?" Charles commented with a smirk.

"Shut up" Jane bitterly replied ". Oh, no, I wasn't telling that to you... yeah, well, I'm sorry I said you aren't enthusiastic, Daria, you are the most enthusiastic cheerleader I've seen" Jane had to keep herself from laughing or puking while saying that ". That's okay, no hard feelings, amiga. I'll see you tomorrow at school. Bye".

Jane hung up the phone and began to laugh uncontrollably. Charles joined her, confused yet amused.

"What's so funny?" He asked her after they calmed down.

"Charles, my mind is so tired and this whole thing is so ridiculous that all I can do right now is laugh".

"Wow, you just called me Charles. That is unexpected".

"Oh, I guess I did" Jane seemed surprised ". I am indeed very fucking mentally tired. You know what? If you don't mind, I think I need to go to sleep. Do you have any aspirins? This whole day gave me a terrible headache".

"Uh, sure" he said and grabbed a small box that contained a lot of white pills ". Here" he said as he gave one of the pills to Jane.

Jane swallowed the pill with some soda and then yawned.

"I'll take you to the guests room" he offered.

Jane raised an eyebrow.

"I am not flirting as much anymore, am I, sweet Jane?".

"Fine, c'mon, I'm tired".

Charles helped Jane to get up after she grabbed her backpack from the floor. Jane had sneaked inside her own house, trying to avoid Trent or any other family member, but for her own amazement she had found a man in a suit coming out of her parent's room.

"Hello! It's so nice to see you, darling. I just came back from taking lovely pictures in India. Look how you've grown in the last few months. Where is your mother, sweetheart?".

"Dad?" Jane asked confused.

"Well, of course it's me, who else would it be?" He laughed loudly.

"Uh, well... mom's out with Summer and the kids... and by the way, I have this... school project and it's for tomorrow and it's really long, yeah, so since mom isn't here I wanted to ask you if I can stay at Daria's tonight, you know, my best friend, so I can finish the project".

"Let me think... I shouldn't allow you to stay at someone else's house on a school night without asking your mom first but I guess if you need to finish a school project there shouldn't be a problem".

"Thanks, dad. I guess I should go now. See you later".

Jane entered her room with the same astonishment on her face she had that morning. Wondering why the hell was her father in the house, she took her backpack from the floor and put some notebooks in it. She opened the closet and added some clothes for the next morning. She took her toothbrush and felt ready enough to leave that terrifying version of Casa Lane.

By the time Charles and Jane had arrived the guest's room, Jane had seen how big Charles' house was. She felt some nostalgia when she noticed how she could hear Charles' parents but they didn't seem to pay much attention to Charles, close enough to her own relationship with her parents. As a child, she had wished them to be around more often, but now her wish was true she had to recognize that their neglect was indeed benign.

"Here we are" Charles informed when they stood in front of a room. He opened the door and entered the room, with Jane following him ". This one has a bathroom so you can shower here in the morning".

"Thanks, Upchuck. Hey, thank you about letting me stay here. I really can't stand being surrounded by all that weirdness out there. Not anymore today, at least".

"It's no problem, now I'll leave you so you can sleep. Good night, sweet Jane".

"Yeah, good night to you too, Ruttheimer".

Charles exited the room and closed the door. He stayed for a minute standing next to the door, thinking again. Jane had started to be much less hostile towards him, he dared to think that now he was treating her in a different way, it could have something to do with the change in Jane's attitude. Could he have a chance... with someone like Jane if he changed his behavior? Could he receive a nice greeting from her when he approached her at school instead of a 'beat it, creep' if he changed the way he talked to her?

Meanwhile, behind the closed door, Jane was changing her clothes and then brushing her teeth, getting ready for a deserved break. She actually felt really grateful towards Charles. He had not only allowed her to stay at his house spontaneously, he also had been decent all night long, as decent as he could be, at least. Of course, Jane's threats had helped, but after a while he had started to act less annoying by himself.

_If he acted like this more often, I could even talk to him without feeling sickened_, Jane thought while lying on her bed in the middle of the dark room.


	4. Chapter 4

When Jane woke up, earlier than she had to because she had gone to bed before eight pm, it took her a moment to remember everything. At first, she couldn't remember where she was or how had she ended up there, but in about five minutes the disturbing recent events came back to her mind. When she first remembered that she was sleeping at Charles' she was bewildered and almost angry at herself for doing such thing, but then she remembered how he had actually been nice to her and controlled his annoying self most of the time. Still a little confused by her own decision, Jane got up from the bed and rubbed her eyes. She went to the bathroom and entered the shower, wondering as a joke if Charles hadn't put any hidden cameras in the shower, but after thinking about it for five minutes the possibility began to sound more realistic which made her hurry up and getting out of the shower very quickly.

Jane went back to the bedroom covered only by a towel. Since her hair was short, it was easier to dry it. She took some clean clothes from her backpack and put them on, then put the dirty ones inside the backpack. She took ten minutes just to dry her hair a little and comb it. When she looked at the clock and noticed it probably was still at least half an hour too early to go check if Charles was awake, Jane decided to take her math notebook and try to finish her homework.

After half an hour, Jane's homework was almost done, but she heard someone knocking the door. It was Charles, she noticed when she opened it. He seemed to have just gotten out of bed.

"Hey, you're already dressed" Charles seemed impressed.

"Yeah, I woke up early and couldn't go back to bed. Guess you just woke up".

"You are right, my lovely Jane. Perhaps you'd rather wait for me in my room".

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm busy with some math stuff. Just go get ready and when you're done come here".

Charles nodded and went back to his room to take a shower. He didn't take long, because he had woken up intrigued about going to school and finding out how much of what Jane had told him was true. Also, seeing Daria as a cheerleader sounded like something he had to see. The simple thought made him scream "feisty" in his mind while he smiled.

When he went back to the guest's room, he found Jane putting her notebook back in her backpack.

"Oh, hey, Chuck, I just finished my homework".

The tone in Jane's voice confirmed what he had been thinking: she was acting much more nicely towards him. She had called him Chuck, a nickname that only a few people used to refer to him.

"Great, great" he, for some reason, felt now a little nervous around Jane ". So, we should go downstairs and have breakfast before school".

Jane nodded and with a smile took her backpack from the floor. Despite of the pizza from the night before, she was hungry.

When they entered the kitchen, Charles asked her what did she want to eat.

"Cereal's cool with me, I really just want to get going to school as soon as possible to check if things are still as creepy".

The two teenagers ate breakfast in silence. Jane, concentrated on eating the large bowl of cereal in front of her and Charles, unable to say anything, not knowing what to say at all.

After Jane brushed her teeth, she was ready to start walking but for her surprise, Charles showed her some car keys and said " you didn't think I'd let such a gorgeous lady walk all the long way to school, did you? ". With that said, they went to the garage and left the house in Charles' car.

"You know, you're not quite as disgusting once I got to know you getter. Which is weird. But once I figure out how to make things go back to normal and I tell Daria I slept at your house she's going to freak out. Man, it's going to be so funny to see her face".

"Well, thanks" was the only thing he could manage to say, since he was stuck in Jane's first phrase. It wasn't like she had told him something too great but it was the nicest thing a girl had ever told him.

Jane kept talking all the way about how a normal Daria would react to the situation and she laughed often about it, until suddenly she seemed sad.

"Is there anything wrong?" Charles asked.

"It's no big deal, well, actually, it is but...".

"What? You can tell me if you want to".

"It's just that here I am, talking about Daria like I am sure things will go back to normal, but what if they don't? What am I going to do if people just stay the way they are now and I lose my friend forever? I certainly can't maintain a normal relationship with this Daria".

Charles was thinking carefully what to say.

"Don't worry, we'll figure this out. There's got to be a way to solve this".

"Thanks, Chuck" Jane said with a smile, and Charles smiled back.

At that moment, they arrived Lawndale High. Charles parked the car and noticed nothing looked out of the ordinary. But then, as soon as he entered the hallway, his face got the same expression Jane had the day before. Jane was now calmer, scared to death, but calm because she knew what to expect. She saw Charles hyperventilating and pulled him inside the empty gym.

"Look, I know this is some creepy shit. Did you see that chubby, black haired cheerleader? That is Andrea. Now try to calm down and not to faint, or scream, or die. Got it?".

Charles nodded, bewildered by what he had seen just a few moments before. He took a deep breath and got ready to leave the gym. As soon as he and Jane went back to the hallway, they found Daria running towards Jane. As soon as the brunette girl with round gasses reached her target - Jane - he covered the black haired one with her arms.

"Oh, Jane, I'm so glad to see you. I am so sorry about our fight yesterday".

"Hey, don't worry, we're good, amiga" Jane reassured Daria.

Charles, with a frozen expression of astonishment, stared at Daria. He could not even say "Grrr... feisty!" Because Daria's ponytail and clothing shocked him and took him by surprise. Her voice also sounded different, way more enthusiastic and joyful than he thought Daria could ever be.

"Oh, hello, Charles. I was so excited about Jane that I didn't see you there, I'm sorry. Nice to see you" Daria greeted with a wide smile.

All Charles could do was nod and nervously smile. Jane had not lied to him, not even exaggerated the situation. Her description of the Lawndale madness had been terrifyingly accurate. The ocean of smiling teenagers took him by surprise. He finally ended up running inside the boy's bathroom, screaming.

"Oh, dear, is Charles okay?" Daria asked.

"Yeah, he is, he's just... he's a little sick right now. If you excuse me, I'm going to check if he's okay".

"That's really nice of you, Jane. I'll see you later".

Jane nodded and waved as she and Daria took opposite directions. Jane sighed and frowned before she reached the boy's bathroom's door.

"Hey, weird redhead guy, get the hell out of the bathroom".

"There is no way I'm going anywhere out of here, Jane!" Charles replied.

"Goddammit, Ruttheimer, if I have to go in there and get you out of the bathroom myself I freaking will and you know it".

After a moment of silence, Charles walked out of the bathroom with an expression of shock on his face.

Jane sighed again, still with a frown and crossed her arms.

"C'mon" she said.

"Where are we going?" Charles asked.

"To the roof, until you calm down".

He nervously followed Jane in silence, maybe even closer to that nervous breakdown than Jane had been. She was handling the situation really well, or at least she knew how to pretend she did.

When they got to the roof and sat on the floor, Charles was still terrified.

"I guess you didn't take it too well. Do you feel any better now?" Jane asked.

"What the hell happened? Who the hell are these people?" He, visibly scared, yelled.

"I don't know, Chuck. I have no idea about what happened or how. At this point an alien invasion sounds realistic enough to me" she shrugged.

"Maybe they've been drugged or got intoxicated with something they ate".

"Whoa, that's quite surprisingly smart thing to suggest while being as shocked as you probably are. But how could they all eat the same thing, and I mean about all the people in Lawndale except for you and me, or how could someone drug virtually the entire town?".

"What about the water? Everyone drinks the same water".

"I guess that makes sense but then how come we didn't go insane?".

"Maybe it didn't get to some houses".

"But my family is acting weird and I drank the same water. Also, my brother Trent said he's been going to college for a whole year. He was the lead singer of a crappy band two days ago and now all of the sudden he's a doctor and my mom hangs out with my older sister who didn't even live in Lawndale in first place".

Jane had just wrecked Charles theory.

"Oh. That, right. I can't think of anything else. Also I can't think of a drug that could make them act this way, not even psychoactive ones. I go for the alien invasion" Charles finished.

The two of the sighed at the same time. They not only didn't know how to make things go back to normal, they also didn't even know against what were they fighting.


	5. Chapter 5

When Charles calmed down, several hours later, he and Jane went back to class.

"Don't freak out again, okay?".

"I'll do my best" Charles replied.

"I'll probably see you after school, if that's okay".

Charles nodded and Jane said goodbye with a smile, saying "later, Ruttheimer".

Charles walked to his class slowly, looking back at the opposite side of the hallway every once in a while, curious to see if Jane was still there going to her own class. But it didn't take long until Jane disappeared, maybe she had entered a classroom or had already turned left or right after reaching the end of the hallway where it split in two paths. When he went back from his mind, he noticed he didn't quite know where he was. It was a dark, big place, he noticed. It was not the auditorium or any room he had seen before for that matter. How had he even gotten there in first place?, he thought. The room, despite of being dark had enough light for him to see it was an empty place. The large room could have easily been the base for a movie set of a big apartment.

_Jane would love a place like this_, he thought, _it looks like the kind of place in New York that would be in the dreams of every artist_.

Charles was about to start to walk around the room, in an attempt to check if there were other entrances or anything on the floor or walls to look at, when his plan was interrupted by a sound. He could recognize steps and someone whistling. Terrified, Charles looked back trying to find the door he assumed he had used to enter the room. As he suspected, there was an open door behind him. Charles crossed it trying not to make any sounds and went up the narrow stairs until he found himself inside the hallways of Lawndale high again. Confused, he looked back at the stairs, wondering if they had been there the whole time or if they hadn't then how were they there now.

He started to walk away from the place, noticing he was in the last corner of the hallways. Surprisingly, like Jane had promised, this new discovery did not shocked him like the events of the earlier morning had. He had told him that once we got used to the idea that this was real it would just be strange and sometimes a little scary, but it would be easier to deal with. He wasn't precisely scared, he was intrigued. Noticing everyone was leaving for their classes, Charles started to walk through the crowd without approaching anyone, ready to finally go to class.

He kept his eyes open and looked around trying to find Jane, but when he arrived to the classroom and didn't find her on the way there he decided to go to class and tell Jane about what he had seen later, perhaps after school, since Jane had told him he'd seen him after school. As he entered history class, he was too busy thinking about that empty room to be impressed by DeMartino's behavior. He had so many questions about the room and not enough ways to answer. Who had entered the room when he was there? Had that person seen him? Why was the person in that room?

"Charles, I see you are a little distracted" Mr. DeMartino said, making Charles get out of his daydreaming about the room.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. DeMartino, I am a little sick but I'm okay".

Mr. DeMartino smiled at him and Charles, confused but already used to it, smiled back.

Charles couldn't wait for the day to be over. When the bell finally rang informing the students that they were free to go, Charles ran to the main entrance and, as he expected, he found Jane.

"Jane, there's something I need to talk to you about".

"Hey, Chuck. If you don't mind, let's talk about that later, okay? I may go to your house in a few hours, as much as I rather not to go home I have to. I'll see you later" Jane replied.

"Hey, wait. I can give you a ride" Charles offered.

"Thanks" she smiled.

During the way there, Charles brought up talking about something again, but Jane told him she didn't want to have more in her mind for when she had to deal with her family and also she needed to have her mind clear to finish some homework as soon as she got home and then go to Charles'.

"Wow, it's kind of crazy that I'm going to hang out with you after school on a Friday. I normally go out with Daria on Fridays or go to one of my brother's gigs but... guess I can't do that with she busy cheerleading and Trent in college".

Charles saw she was distressed again, so he reassured her that they would make things go back to normal one way or another and offered a smile, which she replied with a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I was right, you're not half as bad as you make yourself seem. Thanks for the ride, Chuck".

"You're welcome".

Jane entered the house and looked around in silence trying to spot any family member in order to avoid him or her. Luckly, the house seemed to be empty, except for the cats Zachary and Taylor. The two animals walked around the house looking at Jane with curiosity. Jane went to the kitchen and found a letter on the table from her mom.

_Dear Jane, your dad and me went to visit grandma for a couple of days because it's been an awful lot of time since our last visit. I left some money with Trent for both of you. Since Trent is busy most of the time with college please remember to feed Zachary and Taylor. I left some food in the oven if you're hungry when you get from school. I'll see you in four days, honey_.

Mom.

Jane shrugged and put the letter back on the table. She went to check the oven and found enough food for her and Trent to eat dinner that wasn't something they had to order on the phone.

True to her word, Jane went to her room and prepared for do homework and then go to Charles' house. She surprisingly finished quickly a report she had to do for Mr. O'Neill's class. It would had been easier with Daria around, she thought with sad look on her face. The girl sighed, aware of how much she missed her friend despite of had been only two days without her. They had never been separated like this, whenever they didn't directly see each other for more than a day, thing that rarely happened, they always called each other daily. And now the worst thing was that she could talk to Daria but she didn't want to. That girl wasn't Daria, whoever she was it wasn't her friend. Daria was gone until Jane did something to bring her back. She went downstairs and left the house.

For a second, she thought about going to Daria's, but like a punch to her stomach, the memory she for a second had forgotten, Daria's situation, came back to her with fact that Daria wasn't home, she was probably at Brittany's or at school, practicing with the other cheerleaders.

When Jane got to Charles', he told her the whole thing about the room and the steps he had heard.

"Stairs that lead to a mysterious secret room. At least Lawndale high isn't as boring as I thought. But wait, where the hell did that door come from? I hadn't seen it before".

"I hadn't seen Andrea as cheerleader before but it happened".

"I guess you're right" she agreed ". I'll make sure to check that door next week".

"Be careful, I don't know if the person I found there is okay with us going in there" he warned.


	6. Chapter 6

"And what about mind control?" Jane suggested during that rainy Saturday afternoon with a raised eyebrow while she and Charles discussed possibilities to explain the Lawndale phenomenon.

"Wouldn't that involve the drugs? Remember we said drugs aren't it?" He objected.

Jane sighed and let herself lie on Charles bed while he looked at her from a chair nearby her.

"I'm going to sound like the guy from the documentary but-".

"Documentary?" Charles interrupted.

"A couple of months ago" Jane started her explanation while using her fingers to nervously play softly with the three earrings that were in the holes she had pierced years before, just like Taylor, the cat, had done many times when she was asleep ", Daria and I watched this documentary. We found it by accident on this weird conspiracy website. Anyway, we were there making fun of the stuff people published there and then we found a 50-minute documentary, starring a guy that kinda looked like DeMartino but with normal eyes and obesity. It was pretty much 50 minutes of a summary of all the crap we had already read and then he used 10 minutes to warn about the CIA and the government making experiments with different drugs and other stuff to make people change their behavior and make them do whatever the controller guys wanted. Back then we watched it as joke and made fun of the guy. But now... I don't know, I may be losing my mind more than the people who are making me lose it did. What I'm trying to say is that they may not use _only_ drugs".

Charles didn't say a word. He was thinking about it. It was indeed crazy, but wasn't the whole town crazy anyway? Jane's theory equaled madness, and what other thing can make people go mad that isn't madness itself? He tried to find reasonable theories that didn't involve government agencies plotting to make two teenagers lose their sanity in the name of science by waiting until the went to sleep and then replacing the minds of their friends and family giving not a single explanation. What would anyone possibly want from such a crazy experiment?

"How do you think they could had brainwashed everyone in one night?" Was his first question.

"Maybe that's why we're not crazy yet. They didn't have enough time and we were the only two left".

Jane was making an amazing amount of sense for such a dumb subject. Or it was just that Charles was going insane at the same time she did, therefore they were speaking the same language of madness and if anyone had heard them, that person would had raised an eyebrow or laugh.

"Let's assume that's true, Jane. What can we do? If they did this on purpose, why would they make it go back to normal? And if they left us here by accident that could mean they will come back for us, probably when our minds begin to fry".

"My mind is already frying" she screamed ". This whole shit it's like a fucking hallucination, it's like an endless bad trip".

"What if we're the ones who are on drugs and not them?".

Jane opened her eyes widely analyzing the possibility. It didn't take her long to remember what being high on every drug she had tried felt like and what she had heard from Trent about heavier drugs and bad trips. The situation she was living didn't seem like any drug that she knew about.

Jane shook her head.

"Trust me, we're not on drugs".

Charles shrugged, defeated, because he could not think of anything else which meant he was almost forced to believe in the crazy theory.

"Hey, I have an idea!" He yelled with excitement.

"Go on".

"You said you find the documentary on the Internet, right?".

Jane nodded.

"And you said people published things on that website".

"Wow, you really do pay attention to all my bullshit, don't you?".

"Did you see if there were any people posting from somewhere outside of Lawndale but not too far away?".

"Let me think... Daria said something about some guys, I said 'I can't believe you're going to go to college in a city with so many conspiracy dudes' so I guess I was talking about Boston. Yes, Boston!" She said with a big smile as she quickly got up from the bed ". Turn on the computer, Ruttheimer, we're going on the weird side of the Internet".

"Is there a normal side?" He commented.

"Sometimes you just know how to remind me of Daria in the right moments" Jane smirked and covered Charles with an unexpected hug.


	7. Chapter 7

It was quite easy to get some phone numbers and addresses. Jane and Charles went to the website that she had visited before. The name, , was easy enough for Jane to remember it when the moment of typing it online came.

On the forum, Charles published a post asking Boston residents to answer them, and e-mail them for a possible visit that same weekend. Both Charles and Jane were expecting anxiously any answer, and it only take a few hours to get five responses from Boston. They had something they wanted to discuss, something important, Charles wrote speaking for Jane and himself, and they could go to Boston the next day to see one or more of the people that had answered. The five people replied shortly after giving the kids the adress of a coffee shop in the middle of the city. They said they'd meet them around 12 pm.

This was, also, something the kids desperately wanted, an excuse to get away from Lawndale and the Lawndale aliens.

"What are you going to tell your parents?" Jane asked.

"If they are acting weird too, I don't know because I haven't spoken to them since this started. What are you telling yours?".

"I don't know. Normally I never have to make up things because they're never around so now that they are I may use the Daria related excuse again. If they say no, don't worry, we are going anyways, I seriously can't stand this town for much longer. I'll come over around 9 am, can you drive?".

"Sure, I'll drive".

* * *

Jane took a red backpack and packed a notepad with the address of the coffee shop and the name of it, some money and a jacket. She was ready to go to Boston. Like she had told Charles, she had used the Daria excuse. She was going out with Daria, maybe to a restaurant nearby Lawndale, maybe they would hang around the town. Her parents didn't have to worry, she told them, because she'd be home before 10 pm. Her parents agreed, but for a moment she felt terrified when they told her that maybe Trent should go with them, since he had a crush on Daria. Luckily, Trent said he couldn't go because he had to study, but the information had shocked her. The passive-passive relationship between Trent and Daria had always been Daria liking Trent, not the opposite. Trent blushed when Amanda mentioned his crush on Daria, just like Daria did when Jane teased her about it.

Jane grabbed the backpack, ready to leave to Boston, and that was when the phone rang. Jane ignored the bell, sure that her parents would take the call or maybe Trent. However, as soon as she left her room, Trent's voice called "Janey" from downstairs. Jane raised an eyebrow, wondering who could be calling her since she didn't see a reason for Charles to call her. As she put one foot in front of the other, walking down the stairs, she was wondering if something had happened and that was why Charles was calling, but for her own surprise the voice that replied to her "yo" was not Charles', it wasn't even a male's voice.

"Jane, it's nice to hear your voice!".

"Daria?" Jane asked bewildered.

"You don't sound quite as happy to hear mine" Daria said with a suddenly less joyful voice.

"No, no, it's not that, it's just that... what's up?".

Daria laughed, now happier again.

"I'm good, I'm sorry we haven't really talk in a few days, I've been busy with school and the cheerleading squad and the school's newspaper and the French club and the self-esteem courses for kids".

The brainwashed Daria's enthusiasm scared Jane.

"Uh...yeah, that sucks. But I have to go now, I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay?".

"I guess if you don't have time right now we can talk tomorrow. I haven't seen you around class too much lately but what do you say about getting together for lunch tomorrow?".

"Sure, sure we'll get together fo lunch. Later, Daria".

When Jane hung up she ran through the door and ran half the way to Charles', she couldn't wait to get out of Lawndale for at least a day.


	8. Chapter 8

While Charles drove the pink convertible, Jane was smiling with her eyes closed while the wind moved her hair violently.

"I haven't felt so happy in days" Jane mumbled with a giggle ". We're out of Lawndale, we're leaving that hell, finally".

Charles didn't dare to remind her that they were coming back to Lawndale only a few hours later.

Jane was feeling strange. During those days in Lawndale, everything had been so surreal that she had been feeling extremely numb or extremely sad? For the first time she was away of the place where she had started to feel that way. She felt could almost imagine this was like that time she, Daria, Trent and Jesse were going to the Alternapalooza, if she imagined the smell of the back of the messy van. When they finally reached their destiny and entered Boston Jane was asleep. She had fallen asleep while thinking about the good times with Daria and Trent. Charles didn't wake her up, because he didn't want to disturb her since they weren't in the coffee shop yet. But the sound of the city did it for him. Jane woke up and yawned, and when she found herself surrounded by somewhere that wasn't Lawndale or the empty, endless highway her face lit up and she smiled.

"We're here, we're finally here!" Jane screamed and she combed her hair with her fingers.

"Oh, hey, I didn't know you were awake".

"Hell, I'm starving" she said taking her backpack from the floor of the car.

"Allow me, sweet Jane, to invite you to eat lunch" that was the first time in days that he had said anything flirty.

"Hmm... free food is free food. Where are we eating?".

"Give me the address of the coffee shop, we could have lunch somewhere near there and they will probably be a few minutes late, enough time for having lunch and then meeting them there".

Jane took the notepad out of her backpack and gave it to Charles. She also put her jacket on.

Jane had never been in Boston before, but Charles had been there enough times to recognize around which part of the city was the place. It didn't take them long to find the place, and there were a few restaurants around there. There was an Italian restaurant that served, for Jane's excitement, a pizza that smelled great. Jane and Charles sat on table and ordered pizza. It amazed Charles how Jane was the person who liked pizza the most from all the people he knew.

Jane started to laugh while neither she or Charles knew what to say.

"What happened?" Charles asked with a smile, used to see Jane laughing for no reason.

She suddenly stopped laughing and got serious.

"Is this a date, Chuck?".

The question hit Charles, he hadn't thought about it as a date until Jane brought it up but when he thought about it, it did look like one.

"I... I... why...?" He hesitated confused.

"You know, to be honest with you, at this point if this was a date I wouldn't mind.

Charles looked impressed and his jaw dropped.

"R...really?".

"Yeah" she reassured him with a smile ". I've told you this a bunch of times lately, you're not a bad guy, you just needed to know when to shut up. Now that you do, I like hanging out with you".

The pizza arrived the table at that moment. The waiter saw Jane looking at Charles with a smile and Charles with widely open eyes and a dropped jaw and just raised an eyebrow confused and almost intrigued.

They ate in silence, Charles amazed and Jane satisfied and calm, and they tried not to take too long. When they were done, Charles paid and they walked to the other side of the street to the coffee shop. Before entering, Charles grabbed Jane's arm and stopped her for a moment.

"Jane, did you... mean those things you said at the restaurant?".

She smiled at him and grabbed his hand.

"Yes, Chuck, I did".

Still holding Charles' hand, they entered the restaurant and found three people sitting in a table, wearing blue coats like they had said they would, but she was expecting five. It was two men, one fat and one thin, both with black hair and a woman with blonde hair and green eyes. They had seemed to recognize Jane and Charles too. Holding Charles' hand even more tightly, she shyly walked towards the table.

"Uh, hi. I'm Jane, he's Charles" Jane introduced both of them.

"Hello, I'm Mary and these are John and Luke. Have a seat" the woman offered ". Linda and James couldn't come, their cat got sick".

"That's okay" Jane said.

"So you told us something weird was happening at your town. Lawndale, right?" John asked while taking his cup of black coffee, ready to drink it.

"Everyone went mad" Charles said as a summary.

"What do you mean?" Luke inquired.

"This is gonna sound crazy, but a few days ago everyone in Lawndale was..." Jane couldn't find how to describe them.

"Plain? Miserable, maybe? " Charles suggested.

"Both, I guess. Anyway" she continued ", they were so... different. My best friend was a clinical, not enthusiastic girl, my brother was a lazy band member. Now I wake up one morning and she's a cheerleader and he's going to college to become a doctor".

"And this happened within one night?" Mary asked.

Jane and Charles looked around the table and noticed none of the people there seemed to think they were crazy. They actually looked like they were thinking about what they had been told very seriously.

Jane nodded.

"Why do you think you two weren't affected?" Luke asked.

"We don't know. We thought about drugs in the water or food but I ate the same food and drank the same water".

"That's something very strange. I mean, you did not start acting like them. Did you kids consider the possibility of your friends being part of some sort of mental control experiment?" John suggested.

"How could that work, Luke? I can't see the government doing something like this in one night, to a whole town, can you?" Mary refuted.

Luke shrugged and everyone in the table were silently trying to figure out something, like Jane and Charles had done before already.

The things Jane and Charles had said before started being said by the other three people and most of the ideas were quickly dismissed.

"A massive alien abduction?" Mary said repeating the last possibility that had been said by John ". Why would aliens want to do that and leave two kids out of it? If they are going to do something like that, wouldn't they plan it well enough to make sure they aren't going to forget abducting two people?".

The table had started to be more like a debate between the adults in which Jane and Charles didn't talk much, because the subject that was far more complex than anything they knew. All the theories that they had touched superficially and then dismissed before had been touched deeply by these people and dismissed once again but based of many things the teenagers had not even considered before. After a three hour discussion that touched almost every conspiracy theory that the aforementioned people knew, everyone shrugged when they ran out of things to say. With sad looks on their faces, Mary, John and Luke had to communicate their conclusion to Jane and Charles.

"Kids, we're sorry but we can't figure anything out. We really tried but we just can't" Mary apologized and took Jane's notepad and a pen. She began to write down a phone number and an address.

"Here" she said handing the notepad back to Jane ". That's Linda and James' address and phone number. They know some stuff we don't. I'm afraid you may have to wait until tomorrow, from what they told me their cat got intoxicated and they are going to be busy for a long time".

Jane looked down at the notepad, sad, and thanked the three people. After a few handshakes and goodbyes, only Charles and Jane remained in the table.

"Do you want to go now?" Charles asked, as sad as she was.

"I'm not going back" Jane stated firmly.

"What are you talking about?" He gasped.

"You heard them, Linda and James could help us but not until at least tomorrow. And I am not leaving this place if I know I have any hopes in here. You can go now if you want, but I am staying".

Charles looked directly into Jane's eyes and knew there was no possible way he could persuade her.

"I'll stay with you. I've got my dad's credit card, so we can pay with it and save any cash we have for emergencies. Let's go, we'll find somewhere to stay".

Jane smiled at Charles and took his hand, then they left the coffee shop to find somewhere to stay.


	9. Chapter 9

The place they chose was a big, _very fancy hotel._

_"Whoa, Chuck, sure you wanna stay here? This place looks like a little too much just to stay one_ night".

"Oh, darling, nothing is too much for you".

Jane chuckled, Charles had just pretended to be his normal flirty self without meaning it.

"Now, do you want to sleep in separate rooms?" He asked.

"You know what? Let's sleep in the same room. Just keep your hands where I can see them" she smirked.

After paying for the room and getting something to eat for diner, Jane and Charles went to the room. Jane put her backpack on a couch that was in the room. Charles was surprised when he saw that Jane had packed clean clothes.

"To be honest, I was hoping I'd have an excuse to spend at least one night here. Oh, crap, speaking of that, my parents will be worried if I don't call" she was actually thinking about Trent being worried.

Jane picked up the phone and called to the Lane house.

"Trent! Hey. I just wanted to be honest with you... I didn't really go out with Daria today. I went out with a different friend and we drove to Boston and... now it's raining lot so we for, you know, safety and those things we preferred to stay here and drive tomorrow morning when the highway isn't wet. I know it's really unexpected so I'm sorry, but tell mom and dad I'm okay, will you?... Thanks. Good night, I'll see you tomorrow, Trent. Later".

Jane sighed and lay on the bed.

"Thank god I don't have to stay with them tonight".

Charles didn't say anything and just took a bottle of soda and began to drink it.

"Hey, Chuck, come here a second" Jane called him sitting on the bed.

Charles went in Jane's direction and stood in front of her. Jane pulled Charles towards her, holding his shirt between her fingers, and pressed her lips against his.

Completely shocked, Charles stood in front of Jane without moving a single muscle. Jane held his hand and sighed.

"I guess I'm going to sleep now. I'm really tired. Good night".

"Jane?".

"Yeah?".

Charles, shyly, pressed his lips against Jane's. Jane smiled at him and lay on the bed, covered herself with a blanket and fell asleep.

* * *

When Jane woke up, she found Charles sleeping next to her. Trying not to wake him up, she got up from the bed and went to take a shower. While the water soaked her black hair, she was thinking about the night before. Days before, she would had been sickened just thinking about kissing Charles, but now she didn't even regret it. She was, surprisingly, having a good time with him, as good as the situation allowed it to be. Was she falling in love with him? She didn't know, and she didn't want to think about it. For what she knew, she liked being around him and that was all she needed at the moment.

She got out of the shower and found Charles waiting for her, lying on the bed.

"Morning, Chuck".

"Hey".

Standing, covered only by a towel, Jane felt a little strange.

"Uh, Chuck, do you mind looking at somewhere else while I get dressed?".

"Oh, sorry" he apologized ". I'll go take a shower".

When Charles was already in the shower, Jane let the towel fall to the floor and started to get dressed. She sat on the bed and turned on the TV.

_No Sick, Sad World right now, huh?,_ she thought.

Charles didn't take long, and he exited the bathroom already dressed. He invited her to go for some breakfast and they could go to Linda and James' around 11:00 am. Jane agreed and both of them had a lot of food for breakfast. Jane wasn't even that hungry, but the food was pretty good.

After breakfast, they still had one hour free. Jane, instead of wanting to do anything else, decided to go back to the room and lie on the bed during that hour. Charles stayed with her and they watched cartoons for a whole hour. Afterwards, when Charles told her it was already 11:00 am, it took them 15 minutes to find the place. It was building, they called to the apartment of the people they were looking for, the 4B, and introduced themselves.

"Oh, hello! Yes, yes, our little baby got sick but Whiskers is doing much better now. Come on in" a female voice greeted.

They went up the stairs and found an open door with a black haired woman holding a cat.

"Hi, nice to meet you two" Linda ". Come in, James is in the living room".

Jane and Charles followed Linda and sat on the couch. They greeted James, a brown haired man who was watching the TV. When Charles explained the reason of their visit, James turned off the TV and Linda sat on a couch next to James.

"Mary called saying you were probably coming over today" Linda informed them while petting Whiskers, who was lying on her lap ". She told us about your problem, so don't worry about having to explain it again. You see, Mary probably wanted you to talk to us because we believe in some things they aren't really into. I am going to be direct, is there anyone in your town that may be willing to use... supernatural forces?".

Jane and Charles looked at each other. The most supernatural related thing they had thought about was the aliens, and even then they were kidding about it. Going for the conspiracy path, though completely ridiculous, was real enough if they concentrated in te fact the those theories talked about real people doing crazy things. Now this was about invisible creatures doing invisible things.

"I know it sounds crazy, kids, but what other possibility you have now that isn't believing things like this?".

"She's right, Jane. We have no choice" Charles reminded Jane.

"Well... if I had to guess I'd say Andrea is the one who would be up for that but I can't see her using that to become a cheerleader. She just wouldn't".

"Maybe it's someone else. Perhaps a person who didn't know much about what was he or she doing and things ended up being different to what that person expected" James said.

"I guess that could be right, but I am sure it's not Andrea. I get why she'd want to stop being treated like such a misfit but she wouldn't make herself fit in, she would make us all misfits".

"I agree. I don't think it's Andrea either" Charles said.

"But then who could it..." a memory came to Jane and she froze with the idea.

She remembered the Holiday Island, the holidays and the entrance in the back of the Good Time Chinese restaurant. If Lawndale's situation had anything to do with something supernatural, who was better to speak about supernatural things than holidays in stupid costumes?

"What's on your mind?" James asked, noticing, as everyone else did, that Jane had an idea.

"James, Linda, thank you. What you suggested was very helpful. C'mon, Chuck, we have to go to Lawndale".

"If you need anything, feel free to call us whenever you want, you have our phone number, right?".

Jane nodded. She and Charles thanked Linda and James once again and left.

"Jane, could you tell me what's going on?" Charles asked when they exited the building.

"It's hard to explain, just trust me, okay? We need to go to that Chinese restaurant in Lawndale. I may have some friends that could help us".


	10. Chapter 10

Jane looked carefully to the alley behind the chinese restaurant and saw that nobody was there. She called Charles and they walked inside the dirty, narrow alley. They walked towards the dumpster and Jane sighed, disgusted. Charles helped her move the dumpster and, through the wormhole, they ended up in Holiday Island.

"What was that? " Charles asked.

"I have no idea, but it worked!" Jane yelled, excited.

Charles, a little scared and also bewildered, took Jane's hand. They walked to the Holiday Island High and started to walk around the hallways until Jane recognized a guy in a green shirt getting books out of a locker.

"Yo! St. Patrick's day guy" she called, running towards him.

"Oh, hey, you look familiar".

"Yeah, I am Daria's friend Jane. Halloween, Guy Fawkes day and Christmas started a band with my brother Trent and I helped you bring them back here" Jan reminded him.

"Right, Jane. It's nice to see you".

"Yeah, well, do you know any holiday here that may know anything about supernatural things? Kind of like Halloween... maybe I could talk to her".

"Well, she's at the cafeteria. But if you want to know about supernatural things the Day of the dead may help. He's a goth guy, probably at the cafeteria too" St. Patrick's day suggested.

"What does he look like?".

"Black clothes and black and white makeup all over his face".

"Thanks" Jane said leaving with a smile.

The cafeteria was full of holidays. Jane saw a table where Guy Fawkes Day, Christmas and Halloween were sitting with the President's day presidents, talking. Some tables away from them, the kid described by St. Patrick's day was sitting by himself lighting candles on the table.

Charles looked at Jane, even more confused than before, and she gave him a kiss that soothed him. They sat next to him and he stared at them confused.

"Hi... uh, I'm Jane, he's Charles. Are you the Day of the Dead?".

"You can call me Santiago" He replied with a deep voice and a smirk ". What's up?".

"Do you know about... supernatural stuff?".

"I, of course, know about death, but something tells me that is not what you mean".

Jane shortly explained the events of the recent days, from Daria's visit that first morning to the conspiracy theories with the guys at Boston. After thinking about what he had just been told, Santiago lit another candle and looked at Jane.

"That sounds like something from a movie... or something that El Diablo could have done".

"El Diablo?" Charles repeated confused.

"The devil" both Jane and Santiago translated.

"What makes you think it has something to do with that?" Jane asked.

"For what you've told me, there is nothing else that could explain it. That's all I can do for you. It's up to you to think who would do it" with that said, Santiago went back to the candles.

"Uh, thanks, Santiago".

Jane and Charles got up and walked out of the building. When walking in the direction of the wormhole, Charles started to ask many questions. How had she met them, how had they gotten there, how were they supposed to figure out who had decided to pact with the devil to ask for such a stupid thing.

Jane couldn't even answer the first one, she was too busy trying to figure out the last one. Who would ask for something like that? She thought. By dismissing Andrea, she had dismissed all the misfits. If what they wanted was acceptance, they would had changed things in a different way. Someone like Brittany? In Lawndale, nobody as cheerful as Brittany was smart enough to pact with the devil. Would Daria...?

_No_.

She couldn't think of anyone doing something like that? It was simply ridiculous, pointless, stupid. Maybe Ms. Li, anxious to make everyone perfect and happy. Daria was now still smart, but she was much more enthusiastic. Jane thought that made enough sense. She was the principal, after all, so she could had constructed the secret room Charles had told her about, something that wouldn't surprise Jane since Ms. Li was quite a paranoid person, the kind of person who could easily wake up one morning, think about what would she do if the apocalypse caught her off guard during her daily duties at Lawndale high and decide it was time to take some of the school's money to buy a secret room where she could wait for the Armageddon. But how could she find that room and catch Ms. Li, forcing her to make things go back to normal?

"Hey, Chuck, you remember exactly where the room you told me about was, right?".

"Yes" Charles said ". Why?".

"I've got an idea".


	11. Chapter 11

Jane's plan sounded easy. Thanks to the many high school memories of Trent that Jane knew about, she had a clear idea of how to sneak inside of Lawndale high during the night. After getting in, Charles would guide her to the place where he had seen the stairs and the secret room. Maybe with the school being completely empty, Ms. Li, Jane's suspect, would leave the entrance to the secret room open. It would be easier for them to see anything unusual without hundreds of students walking around the hallways.

"Meet me in front of the school at 10:00 pm and don't forget to bring a flashlight" Jane said right after explaining Charles her plan while returning from the Holiday Island ". I have to go now and face my family... I'll probably have to sneak out from Casa Lane to get to school, but I'll get there".

"Jane, wait, before you go...".

"Yeah?".

"Did you mean those things that you said and the kisses and everything?".

"Hell, Chuck, I already said many times that I did. I meant those things then, I still mean them now" she firmly stated.

"What's going to happen when things go back to normal?" Charles inquired with a concerned expression.

Jane doubted.

"I don't know" were the only three words that she could use to answer.

Charles was disappointed, though not impressed. Jane noticed it but didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. She just gave him a goodbye kiss and left in silence.

* * *

"Janey" Trent gasped right after covering Jane with a hug ". I was so worried because it took you too long to get here".

When Trent let her go, Amanda and Vincent approached her.

"Young lady" her mother stared with a firm, angry voice while her dad was standing with his arms crossed and a frown ", we gave you enough freedom to go out and what do you do? You lie to us and then abuse of your privileges" Amanda shook her head.

The situation was very strange to Jane. She never had to deal with her parents or breaking their rules before. They didn't even have rules a week ago to begin with, she thought. Jane stood confused and in silence listening to her parents, not sure what was she supposed to say.

"You are grounded!" Vincent yelled.

"You are not leaving this house for a month, you're coming straight home from school" Amanda stated.

"Uh... okay. I'm sorry, I won't do it again".

"Now go to your room" her dad ordered.

Jane shrugged and walked to her room. She sat on her bed looking at the floor.

"What the hell was that?" She asked herself.

"You got grounded" Trent replied, pointing out his own presence in the room ". Why did you lie to mom to dad?".

"I didn't know if they'd let me go to Boston".

"Why did you lie to me?" He asked, sad.

"I didn't know if you'd tell mom and dad. Look, it's no big deal. I wanted to go out with a friend, we ended up spending the night at Boston".

"Did you... sleep with him?".

Jane raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know it wasn't a female friend?".

"I guessed and I'm just... I'm wondering, you're my little sister and I don't want anyone hurting you".

"Trent, we're just friends" she lied, but she wasn't lying about not sleeping with Charles ". Nothing happened".

Jane felt uncomfortable with that talk. Trent had known before about Jane's sex life but it was more casual, like a talk between two friends. She was glad, though, that this version of Trent still cared about her as much as the original version did.

"Okay. I'm sorry if this conversation is weird but... I was worried".

"That's okay, Trent" she smiled at him.

She decided to tell him about her plans to sneak out.

"Can you keep a secret?".

Trent nodded.

"You can't tell mom or dad. I'm sneaking out tonight".

"Oh, are you seeing... him?" He seemed concerned again.

"Trent, we're not doing anything. We're just hanging out. Do you think you could help me? I promise I'll try to get here early".

He doubted but finally nodded shyly.

"What time are you leaving?".

"Around ten pm" she replied.

"I'll keep them busy. But promise me you'll get here before midnight".

"Deal".

"But promise me you won't...".

"Trent!" Jane interrupted.

"Okay, sorry. I believe you".


	12. Chapter 12

When it was finally ten pm, Trent did his part of the deal. Jane waited in the stairs while her parents watched TV in the living room. Trent went there and stood next to the TV, where he began to randomly talk about college.

"Come back in exactly an hour" Trent told her before he went to the living room ". I'll open the back door for you".

Jane nodded. With Trent entertaining Amanda and Vincent she was sure they wouldn't randomly decide to go somewhere else in the house. Trent distracted them well enough for her to leave the house through the front door. Trent also made sure of telling them that she had already gone to bed. But Jane was outside, waking to school like she did in the mornings.

When she got there she found Charles, like he had promised, in front of the school. She greeted him with a kiss, more out of nervousness than love. All she was thinking about was that her parents would ground her forever if they found her room empty and that she hoped everything went okay inside the school.

When they were inside the hallways, Jane took a small flashlight from one of her pockets and Charles took his own flashlight. They started to walk, guided by Charles.

"Why do you worry so much?" Jane whispered because she noticed Charles' distressed expression and assumed it was because of the same thing that always worried him whenever they were together.

"Jane, despite of my behavior, you are the only girl so far who seems to care about me... who doesn't seem to hate me, I mean. That's important to me. I really like you and I feel like I don't know what am I going to do if you don't like me back".

It was surprising for Jane that she actually felt somehow touched by Charles. Nobody that she remembered had seemed to like her as much before. He had even stopped being utterly annoying just because he had noticed that had a positive impact on their relationship.

"Do me a favor and don't worry about it. I like you too, okay? Just because everyone else will go back to normal and find this weird that doesn't mean I find it weird. We're okay. But please, we need to solve this first, then we can focus on, well, us, I guess".

He agreed and started to work exhaustively on calming himself down.

The rest of their way to the place was rather quiet with only a few interruptions in which they asked things to each other and made commentaries on the empty school and the room that they were trying to find.

When they reached the place where Charles had said he had seen the room, they were surprised by some narrow stairs apparently hidden inside a locker. Charles did not remember the locker, but he didn't give it much importance. It was dark, but when they found the wall and eventually the doorknob, it was Jane who was guiding inside the locker, Jane's voice whispered something that frustrated them both.

"It's locked" she meanwhile tried to open it, but nothing happened ". I can't open it. What if we hit it with something and break it?".

"We can't do that, someone may be there or at least someone is inside the school and could hear us. Let's do something, we already know the door is behind the locker. We can come tomorrow when we figure out some method to open a door without a key".

Jane felt a little angry, she just wanted to get in there and tell whoever who had done that to make things go back to normal, but she knew she couldn't.

She looked at her watch and noticed she still had 20 minutes free before having to go home.

"Hey, I have 20 minutes, then I have to go home. Wanna go for a walk?".

"Sure" Charles agreed.

They left the narrow passage and then the school, and started to walk around the football 's field was fried and tired. She had never felt so much stress in such a short period of time. She took Charles hand, kissed him and asked him to shut up.

"Right now I need you to do me a favor. Just don't say a word and lie in there while I take off my clothes. I don't want any commentaries or any word at all for that matter, got it?".

Charles nodded.

On one hand, Jane had said her brother he didn't have to worry. On the other hand, she was too tired to care about his brainwashed brother at that moment.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: the beginning of this chapter is a reference to The Virgin Suicides.**

* * *

Jane opened her eyes and found herself lying on the ground in the middle of the football field. The sky had acquired a bright tone of blue, but there was still some time before the rise of the sun. Jane didn't see anyone or heard a sound. When she turned around she saw Charles lying next to her with his eyes closed. Jane looked at him, unsure of how did she want to feel and got up. She started to walk away, hoping that Trent had left the door open all night or that she could get in through one of the windows.

It was at that moment that her conscience kicked in.

_You can't leave him alone there, what will happen if everyone gets here and he's still asleep?,_ Jane thought as she stopped her walking. She sighed and turned around.

"Charles" she called him ". Charles, wake up, we have to go".

Charles woke up after Jane touched his shoulder and he seemed astonished from the first moment he woke up.

"Uh... Jane" he hesitated ". Hi, I... we...".

"We'll have time for talking about that later, now I need to go home".

He hadn't really noticed anything but Jane. But as soon as she had brought up the going home situation he reacted. They had fallen asleep in the middle of the football field the night before and had spent the night there. In an hour or so there would be people walking around the same place where he had slept with Jane. If it had been up to him, he would had decided to stay sitting there with her and talk for the rest of the day, but she had to go home and so did he.

Without saying much more, they both left to their respective houses.

Jane kept her mind busy with figuring out how to get inside her house without a key, in order to avoid having an awkward conversation about the night before with herself. She tried her best option first: the doors. Sadly, they were closed. She didn't insist much with them, worried to make too much noise. After a few attempts, she managed to get in the house through the window in Penny's room. She walked through the hallway carefully, making sure nobody was awake, and the time it took her walking from one side of the hallway to the other felt too long.

When she reached her room, she closed the door and sighed, relieved. All she wanted to do was to go to bed and wake up several hours later, but she knew, after checking a clock, that she had only half an hour until the time she normally woke up. She couldn't really relax herself enough to sleep, that required a few minutes of mental silence she couldn't afford at the moment. She was thinking about many things: had her parents noticed her absence? Was Trent angry or worried about her not coming home the night before? Was she going to be able to bear with school that morning? With the questions rushing through her mind like lighting and screaming like thunders, Jane made it through those thirty minutes standing in the middle of her room with a thunderstorm in her head. It was the sound of the alarm what brought her back into reality. She stopped the alarm as quickly as she could, grateful for being back inside her quiet room but annoyed by the familiar noise that interrupted her sleep every morning, and took a shower. When she got downstairs she found the Lanes, Vincent, Amanda and Trent, having breakfast. Her parents were wearing their pajamas and Trent had already taken a shower. She, apparently, had taken more time than she had thought. Contrary to her perception of time in the hallway earlier that morning, the shower had felt like it hadn't last enough time.

"Hello, Darling" Amanda greeted with a smile and a plate with pancakes and maple syrup.

"Good morning, sweetheart" Vincent said putting down his newspaper for a moment to see his daughter.

They didn't seem to have noticed a thing, which meant Trent had kept his promise to keep the secret. He, however, was not looking at her and seemed to ignore the mere fact that she was even there.

"Morning, Trent" Jane said.

Trent kept his serious look while he was concentrated on his breakfast.

"Hey, Jane" Trent replied dryly without looking at her.

He had stressed the word Jane, but he didn't even have to for Jane to notice that her brother was upset. He was angry, probably about her breaking her part of the promise. Jane could feel the tension between her older brother and herself, which made the breakfast a little uncomfortable and rather quiet except for the moments when her parents talked to each other. When breakfast time was over and Jane went to her room to pick up her backpack, Trent approached her when she was going to leave her room.

Jane was expecting to be yelled at, to hear disapproving commentaries. She, instead, got a hug.

"I was worried" Trent whispered without getting his arms off his sister ". I was mad at you for leaving and... were you with...?".

"Trent" she interrupted him ". I'm okay, nothing happened" she lied ". Don't worry. Thanks for not telling mom and dad".

"No problem. We're good. I have to go get my stuff and go to class now, so I'll see you later. Bye, Janey".

Jane felt happy and released after hearing him call her by her nickname.

The first part was over, her family had been easily bearable, more than she had thought. She had the second and more stressful part of the day right in front of her: school.


	14. Chapter 14

"Jane, I'm so glad to see you. Trent told me about how you couldn't drive back here from Boston" Daria greeted Jane with a hug. At that point, Jane had almost gotten used to Daria's new excitement when it came to physical contact.

"Yeah, sorry I didn't keep my promise of seeing you during lunch yesterday" Jane apologized.

"That's okay, it wasn't your fault. We can still sit together today, right?".

"Right" Jane faked enthusiasm ". I have class so, you know, I'll see you later, amiga".

"Okay. Have a nice day".

"Yeah, yeah, you too" Jane smiled awkwardly.

Surprisingly enough for Jane, she did go to class. With Mr. DeMartino. Instead of going to walk around, skip class and spend time with Charles, she preferred class. Mr. DeMartino pointed out Jane's constant absence during the previous days, but she said she hadn't been feeling well during those days. The scary, happy version of DeMartino stressed how happy he felt to have her back in class, to what she replied with a hesitant "thanks".

After the first hour of class, she had given herself time to think. Why was sleeping with Charles a big deal? She thought. The only thing keeping her from acting normal in front of him was the thought of him seeing her and then picturing her naked. She liked him and didn't want him going back to his flirty, annoying self. Hoping he wouldn't act like Upchuck, he tried to find him in the hallways while she was walking to her next class, but didn't find him. She didn't even know if he had gone to school.

There was one thing in her mind about Charles that kept her feeling uneasy, the question he had asked her. What would happen when things went back to normal? Sure, she probably would still like him, and she wouldn't mind hearing constant skeptical commentaries from Daria, but when she thought about being in a relationship that had begun under such weird and awful circumstances it seemed to scare her, reminding her how those days with Charles had been days during which she had been close to lose her mind more times than she had ever been close to lose it before. She almost felt sometimes like there would had been no way for them to even get to talk for more than five minutes if it hadn't been because her sanity had forced her to.

She moved from class to class trying to act normal until lunch period came. She had hoped it hadn't. Daria, sitting with Brittany, Andrea and other cheerleaders, called Jane to her table. With a tray full of food, Jane walked towards the table moving her gaze anxiously around the place in multiple attempts to find Charles but she couldn't see him anywhere. She gave up and sat next to Daria. Everyone greeted her with smiles as if she was a close friend. She answered to their commentaries and questions about how she hadn't been going to class much.

Meanwhile, she was thinking about Ms. Li. She wanted a chance to see her and see if she found any evidence to support her theory about Ms. Li being responsible for the behavior of all the people sitting next to Jane.

When the bell finally rang informing the students that they had to go back to class, Jane felt happy about leaving the conversation with her brainwashed classmates, to instead go to listen to another brainwashed teacher and be only surrounded by the alien replacements of Lawndale High's students without having to interact much with them. Unfortunately, her next class had Mr. O'Neill in it, among with almost every single student that insisted in interacting with her despite of her wishes of avoiding them. She thought about skipping that class saying she was sick, but she ended up deciding to go to class because it couldn't be that unbearable.

"Now, class, I thought it would be a good idea to do something a little different today to get to know each other's feelings better" Mr. O'Neill's words gave Jane a short flashback to that class the first day things had started to be weird, when instead of doing any physical activity they had done things that resembled more a Mr. O'Neill's class.

"Alright!" Kevin yelled.

"All of you seem to have improved your happiness and self esteem lately, and that is something great. So I want you to share your experience with each other. Let's begin with you, Daria. How are you feeling?".

"Well"she began with a smile that scared Jane ", I feel really happy and full of energy, Mr. O'Neill!".

The answer, Jane thought, would had sounded better with Daria's regular voice.

"I'm happy to hear that, Daria. How about..." he waited and checked the students present in the class ", you, Jane. I haven't seen you in class much lately".

"Yes, uh, I've been a little sick" Jane kept her lie.

"I'm glad to see you're healthy enough today to join us in class. Tell us about your feelings".

Something inside of her wanted to scream how stressed and confused she felt. Instead, she put on a smile as big as Daria's and said "I feel really happy".

"It surprised me a little that Daria hasn't convinced you to join the cheerleader squad or any other club. Your classmates have been very excited about doing different activities but, sadly, I hadn't seen that excitement in you. May I ask why?".

"Because... that's because I've been sick. Yeah, I've been sick so I couldn't really do much".

"Oh, but I suppose you will be joining us soon, right? I am hoping you've been feeling as enthusiastic as your friends lately".

For some reason, Mr. O'Neill's words, smile and voice tone disturbed Jane.

"I... guess so".

"Are you okay, Jane? You seem upset".

"I'm fine" she dryly stated.

"Alright then" Mr. O'Neill looked concerned and suspicious as he moved to the next student ". It's your turn, Andrea".

Jane felt strange. Mr. O'Neill almost scared her, but any enthusiasm and positivism at the moment scared her. She ignored the rest of the class but noticed a few suspicious glances from Mr. O'Neill and Daria. She couldn't wait for that night, she just wanted to get in the school, solve the Lawndale mess and move on with her normal life once she got back with her old friends and family.


	15. Chapter 15

Jane didn't see Charles anywhere around school. After she got home straight from school, like her parents had required, she thought about calling him but then decided to leave it for later. She went to her room, avoiding her mother, and lay on her bed to think.

She didn't have the chance to see Ms. Li that day, something that bothered her because she really had wanted to check for any behavior that could incriminate Ms. Li. Instead, she was weirded out by Mr. O'Neill, Mr. DeMartino and pretty much any teacher or student she had seen that day. Once again, like in that first day, being around Charles had been the less stressful thing so far.

She was wondering about one thing in particular when thinking about the Ms. Li theory, something that made her doubt of her otherwise perfectly logical plan. Why had Ms. Li made the whole town act the way she wanted the high school students to act? Everyone around Lawndale, except perhaps for Charles' father who was either ignoring everything or being neglectful even when being ordered by supernatural forces not to, was acting very competent and full of energy and happiness. She could understand Ms. Li wanting to change the teachers too, Jane had to admit that when it came to be someone's boss the new version of DeMartino was easier to handle than the original one, but why changing Lawndale itself? Because she didn't want to destroy the only theory that seemed plausible to her, the only hope keeping her around as a promise of getting her best friend and older brother back, she thought Ms. Li had somehow accidentally messed up her request for the devil and had ended up screwing the whole town instead of just some high school students. Or maybe she had done it on purpose, Jane thought, to make sure the people outside of Lawndale High wouldn't react the way Jane had reacted when she saw the drastically changed teachers and high schoolers.

For her own surprise, she had been thinking on her bed for two hours. She had been utterly lost inside her thoughts for a long time. It was a good time to call Charles and set up the appointment to go to Lawndale High that night, probably at 10:00 pm again, and this time Jane was taking a small card and a bobby pin with her, both of which she knew how to use to open a door like the one inside the locker.

She took the phone and waited until Charles picked up.

"Hello?".

"Hey, are we still going tonight?".

"Oh, hey, Jane" he sounded more calm and less hesitant ". Yeah, I think so, ten pm again?".

"Sure" she was glad that he sounded less tense ". By the the way, why didn't you go to school today?".

"When I got home I was too tired so I decided to give myself one more day off".

He could, of course, take days off every once in a while thanks to his grades, which were much better than Jane's.

"Did your parents notice you were out all night long?" He asked.

"No, I'm good. I mean, I'm still grounded because of the Boston thing, but my brother didn't tell them I didn't get home. I still don't know how I'll manage to convince him I won't stay out all night tonight but I'll make it, even if I have to sneak out like I got in this morning".

"How did you get it?".

"Through my sister's bedroom's window" she chuckled.

"Hey, about last night...".

"We're good about that, right? Please don't tell me it makes things any different. It doesn't, does it? So we slept together in a football field and then woke up just in time not to get caught by the whole school. It's not big deal, is it?".

"Not in a bad way, if that's what you mean. It was kind of a... big thing for me. I mean, you're you and I'm me and I don't know what I'm trying to say but I think I will just shut up".

Jane laughed.

"Hey, I didn't know that awkward and confused version of you".

"Neither did I" Charles replied followed by an awkward laughter.

* * *

Jane had decided to use Trent's help again. It was more convenient to have him making sure her parents thought she was asleep. Trent got home at 9 pm, which gave her one hour to convince him.

"Trent, please, just do me this favor one more time and I swear I won't ask you to do it again. Please, I'll get in through Penny's window, just make it easy for me by letting it open. I promise that if I get one minute after 11 pm you can tell mom and dad. I just want to go out one more time before being grounded for a month. Please" Jane begged.

"I know you want to go out but I don't want you going out with guys. Why don't you go out with Daria? I mean, what were you even doing out all night?".

"Trent! We fell asleep in the football field. We were going for a walk, then we decided to lie in the football field and fell asleep".

Trent raised an eyebrow.

"Janey, I'm in college, I'm not stupid".

Jane shrugged.

"It won't happen again".

He crossed his arms.

"Fine, fine, not tonight at least. Hell, Trent, this is a really awkward conversation for me. He didn't talk me into it, it was me who... why am I even telling you this? Are you going to help me or not?".

He sighed.

"Okay. You can go but I'll check you're here by 11 pm. I'll leave Penny's window open".


	16. Chapter 16

When Jane left, she walked to school, nervous, excited and scared. She was decided to end that crap that night. Thinking about that, she ended up going to walk by Daria's before going to Lawndale High. It would take her some of the minutes of that hour she had been given, but she didn't care.

Walking in front of Daria's house brought back old memories, which made her be even more sure about ending that and getting her friend back that night. She saw Daria's parents, Jake and Helen, sitting in front of the TV, laughing. Mr. And Mrs. Morgendorffer looked less tense than they normally did, and, surprisingly, Helen's phone didn't seem to be anywhere near her. Jane saw light coming from the window of Daria's room. Her brainwashed friend was probably doing her homework, Jane thought.

Seeing Daria's family made her wonder about something that she never imagined she would ever wonder about: was she doing the right thing? The school's misfits were happy and had the friends they had always been wishing for, Daria was not even close to be someone nicknamed as the misery chick, DeMartino was no longer close to have a psychotic attack whenever he was awake, her family was actually staying in the same house at the same time for more than a day, Trent had a future, pretty much everyone had much better lives than they did before, even Charles. The only one who was utterly unhappy was Jane. Was she really doing that because it was right or was it just about her getting the life that _she_ wanted back without thinking if the rest of the people wanted it back?

_Crap, if I hadn't stopped here I wouldn't have this stupid moral conflict_, she thought staring at the Morgendorffer house.

She was no longer sure about her decision. On one hand, she wanted her loved ones back, but they probably didn't want her back. Who wants misery and deep friendship when you can have happiness and shallow relationships?

Probably not even Charles wanted things to go back to normal. Back to normal meant being back in reality, where their relationship sounded surreal. He didn't seem to have anyone who had been left back in the old version of Lawndale.

She started to walk back home but then remembered that Charles was waiting for her and so she had to go all the way to Lawndale High to tell him that she had changed her plans. She didn't mind the walking.

She had to wait for a few minutes in front of the school until Charles got there.

"Hey, sorry I was late".

Jane looked at him with sad eyes and sat next to the entrance.

"What's wrong?" He asked ". I haven't seen you this sad since you thought you wouldn't find a way to get Daria back to normal".

"That's because I'm not making her go back to normal".

Charles was impressed. During all the days that he had been around Jane all she seemed to talk and think about was making things go back to normal. Then all of the sudden, when they were finally close to achieve her goal, she had decided she didn't want it anymore.

"What are you talking about?".

"Think about it, Charles. I'm the only one miserable about all this shit, aren't I? Everyone else is happier than they've ever been . I'm going to take all that away from them just because I don't like it. But, what if they don't want to be what I want them to be? Wouldn't change them be something completely selfish?".

Charles, like Jane, had not thought about that until that night. He sat next to Jane.

"How do you know they want to be this happy?".

Jane was confused.

"Isn't that the whole point of being alive? Finding happiness and all that crap?".

"Did you ever read Brave New World?" Charles asked, reminding Jane of the old Daria as painful fantasy.

She shook her head.

"It's about a society in which everyone is happy. Then one day someone who doesn't belong to that society, a savage, is taken there. So he's confused and finally all he wants is his right to be miserable. It's not just about being happy, Jane. Would you want to be a robot with no feelings at all but happiness?".

She hugged him. What he had said hadn't only changed her perspective, but also had had reminded her of Daria even more. She broke down crying; she missed her friend.

"Let's get in there" Jane firmly ordered getting up.

Jane almost made Charles run to the place where they both knew the door was. The locker was open. They could see lights from under the door. Jane held Charles hand and sighed, scared. She couldn't know who or what was there. It wasn't hard for her to get the door open with the card. She opened the door shyly and found two people in a room full of candles and some lamps, facing the opposite side of the room. She was close to freeze and then run away, but the image of the old Daria and Trent gave her strength. She held Charles' hand tighter, scared.

After her first step the two men turn around. What Jane saw made her drop her jaw.

"Mr. O'Neill?" Charles and Jane screamed.

"Oh, dear" Mr. O'Neill nervously exclaimed ". Jane, Charles, what are you doing here?".

Next to him, a pale man with dark eyes and black hair was staring at them. He was wearing a suit and seemed to be young.

"What are _you_ doing here? And who is that?" Jane was talking about the man standing next to Mr. O'Neill.

"This is...".

"I'm the devil, but you can call me Roger, Roger Satan" he introduced himself with a british accent.

"Uh... Mr. O'Neill? Can I talk to you in the hallway?" Jane asked.

"Sure, Jane. I'll be right back, Roger".

The man, who seemed very polite, nodded and waited standing in the middle of the candles.

Once outside with Charles and Jane, Mr. O'Neill seemed very nervous.

"Mr. O'Neill, I have one question, what the hell is going on?" Jane inquired.

"I knew it! You weren't acting like the others. Oh, god, I'm sorry. Jane, Charles, I've been teaching here for a while and I've seen how... unhappy everyone seems to be. I've tried hard to help whenever I could but it isn't easy so I... I just wanted to help. I decided to make everyone in Lawndale happy".

"Well, this is freaking me out so please, if you are concerned about my happiness, give me my old friends back. You see, Mr. O'Neill, life's not just about that. Hell, who knows, maybe with our misery whenever we have short moments of happiness they seem even more special than if we felt happy the whole time".

"Jane! You're right. Oh, dear, what have I done? Wait here, you two, I'm going to fix this".

Jane and Charles sat on the stairs, nervous.

"You think he can convince the devil?" Jane asked Charles.

"I don't know, I hope so" he replied.

After half an hour of waiting, Mr. O'Neill and Roger came out.

"This man is surprisingly persuasive, kids" Roger said ". I may be the devil, but I'm not such a heartless creature. I've been seeing you, Jane, while you were talking with Mr. O'Neill I made a short tour through your mind. I see you miss your brother and your best friend. Also, as I said, Mr. O'Neill is a persuasive man".

Mr. O'Neill blushed and smiled.

"Everything will be back to normal by tomorrow morning" Roger promised.

"Thank you" Jane and Charles said at the same time.

"Hey, before you go, I have one more question".

"I'm not allowed to speak about life after death or the meaning of life or anything similar, when I do, God yells at me" he rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed.

"It's not about that".

"Oh, then go ahead".

"How come we didn't change?".

"Well, I'm the devil but I don't always get things right. It would surprise you how many pacts are made every day and sometimes those stupid demons don't do things right. Being the devil isn't that easy. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go back to hell, a teenager in Idaho is calling. It was nice to meet you. Good night, everyone".

With that said, a curtain of smoke covered him and he was gone.

"Well, I am terribly sorry that I made you go through this confusing situation. I'll see you two tomorrow morning. I should clean that room and get going back home".

"Sure. See you later, Mr. O'Neill" Jane said.

"Goodbye" Charles gasped before going after Jane who had already started walking away ". Wait!" He called while following her through the dark hallway.

Jane stopped suddenly and kissed Charles, then she started to laugh and moved her face away.

"Dammit, I can't believe I am saying this but I love you!" She screamed laughing ". I feel so happy. Promise you won't go back to normal tomorrow?".

"If you mean back to Upchuck, I won't" he said smiling ". And I love you too".

She couldn't stop laughing, she felt really excited.

"Let's get out of here, I promised Trent I'd be home by 11 pm".

* * *

"Hey" Jane called from the door of her brother's bedroom.

He looked at the clock.

"You got here in time" he smiled at her, moving his book to the night table next to him.

"Yeah, I promised it, didn't I?".

"You look really happy, what happened?".

"Oh, nothing. I'm just happy to see you. Yeah, I am. You mind if I sleep here tonight?".

"It's okay with me, but I'll go to bed soon".

"I don't mind. Today was kind of a long day. I need to sleep" she chuckled.


	17. Chapter 17

When Jane woke up the first thing she noticed was that the room she was in was no longer organized. It was messy, there were guitars, cables, dirty clothes and all sort of things on the floor. She turned around and saw her brother asleep with messy hair.

"I can't believe it!" She screamed, waking up Trent suddenly.

"Ow, Janey, it's early" a raspy, slow voice complained.

"Trent!" Jane immediately hugged him tightly and he, confused, smiled with his eyes half closed and hugged his sister back.

"I'm happy to see you too, but I still want to sleep, so...".

"I love you! Goddammit, I love you so much! I have to go to school, so I'll see you later when I get home" she left the room running with a smile on her face. Trent, confused but happy, went back to sleep with a smile.

She ran around the house. Her parents bedroom had no one in it. Downstairs the house was empty too. There was no sign of Amanda or Vincent. Jane took a shower, as short as she could, got dressed and didn't even think about eating. All she wanted was to go see Daria. Luckily for her, as soon as she was leaving through the door she saw a short, brunette girl with round glasses, a black skirt and green jacket walking in the direction of her house. Jane ran towards Daria. Her friend looked confused but then didn't have time to do anything more than put an expression of horror on her face as Jane covered her with her arms in a hug that barely let her breathe.

"Uh... I'm happy to see you too, Jane. Though I don't know where is the excitement coming unless you plan on going somewhere else instead of school after this hug" the flat voice of her friend, which lacked of the excitement required for any cheerleader, said.

"Oh god, Daria, it is you!" Jane looked at Daria then covered her with her arms again ". I missed you, I missed you so much!".

"Can I ask where did I go?".

"I'll really have to tell you some things soon. I really have to much to tell you. It's gonna sound completely crazy, but... oh, well, never mind, I'll tell you about that nightmare later. Let's go to school, I feel like today I don't want to be late".

* * *

**Author's note: **I was really struggling with the ending because I kind of wanted to write an ending that wasn't so and they lived happily ever after. But I just would get sad over it (... yeah) however I was really thinking about an alternative ending in which Jane decides to leave things the way they are (therefore never finding out what happened), another in which Mr. O'Neill offers Jane and Charles to be happy like everyone else and they accept it and another in which maybe the devil or Mr. O'Neill lied to Jane forcing her to end in one of the aforementioned endings but that sounded a bit like something too mean to be done by Mr. O'Neill or for him to let it happen. Anyway, sorry about going all happy ending (if you wanted something less of a cliche) but thanks for reading!


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